However the delivery was diverted to the Royal Navy before launch, and she was renamed for Sir Richard Bickerton commander of HMS Terrible at the First Battle of Ushant during the American Revolutionary War.. Bickerton was ordered on 10 January 1942, as DE-75, a long-hulled turbo-diesel (TE) type destroyer escort, one of more than 500 such vessels built for ASW to a collaborative British-American design.

She was launched on 24 July and completed 17 October, in the remarkably (but not unusually) short build time of 5 months 14 days[2][Note 1] On commissioning and working up Bickerton sailed for Britain, where she was modified to meet Royal Navy requirements.

On 6 May 1944, the German submarine U-765 was found and sunk in the North Atlantic by depth charges from Bickerton, operating alongside two Fairey Swordfish (No.

In June Bickerton and 5EG were deployed in the English Channel as part of Operation Neptune, the naval component of the Normandy landings.

Before the group was able to launch an attack on Tirpitz, U-354 encountered them on her search for the convoy northwest of the North Cape in the Barents Sea.